What made Stargate Command so realistic was the rotating personnel throughout the base, making the environment a living, breathing thing filled with real people. Rob Lee played Colonel Pierce for four seasons in Stargate SG-1, and he joins us LIVE to share some stories and take your questions!

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TRANSCRIPT
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David Read:
Hi everyone. Welcome to Episode 302 of Dial the Gate. The Stargate Oral History Project. My name is David Read. Appreciate you being here with me for the opening to Season Five. Rob Lee, who played Colonel Pierce in four seasons of Stargate SG-1, is joining me. If you have questions for him, get them over to my mods now. Welcome Rob. How are you, sir?

Rob Lee:
I’m doing great. Thanks for having me here.

David Read:
I appreciate you being here. Were you surprised by me reaching out to you after all this time? It’s like, “What? Yeah, I was in that show long time ago. What do you wanna know?”

Rob Lee:
“Star what?” Because that was quite a while back that you text me. And life is busy, and I thought, “Oh, this is probably some sketchy guy who’s trying to scam me with something.” But finally, I just thought — It was one of my sons. He said, “You should respond to him.” Because he saw it on my feed. And I said, “Yeah, maybe I will.” And you seem like a great guy.

David Read:
Well, I appreciate it. Tell me about your journey as an actor, your journey as a person, where you are in your life right now before we start going into the past a little bit.

Rob Lee:
So, I’ll try to sum it up because we could be here for hours. Because life is a journey. That’s my… My sons always say that’s my favorite word over the last 10 years, is “Life is a journey.” Professionally, as a young guy, I initially wasn’t an actor. I was a musician. A professional musician traveling around North America.

David Read:
What do you play?

Rob Lee:
What’s that? I play keyboards [and] piano. And when I moved to the West Coast of Canada here at the age of 17-18 to make a — Long story short I ended up joining this touring club band. And back in the early 80s there, there was hundreds of clubs all over the country. And if you were a decent band, you could make a great living. So, in a few years we ended up being in the mid-80s, the band that I was in for 12 years, we ended up being a mainstay band in Downtown Vancouver and making a top dollar playing 50 weeks a year, five to seven nights a week, just playing all the time for 12 years.

David Read:
I’m curious what were you playing.

Rob Lee:
Where was I playing?

David Read:
What were you playing?

Rob Lee:
Well, I was playing keyboards but we…

David Read:
No, no. I know you’re playing keyboards. What were you playing? Were you playing rock? Were you playing jazz? What were you playing?

Rob Lee:
We were more of a… I guess you would almost say a techno pop band. We were doing a few originals but mainly covering all the latest radio hits. Tears for Fears and all that kind of stuff. But we had two electric violinists in the band so…

David Read:
Awesome.

Rob Lee:
…We were kind of unique. So, we ended up… In the mid-80s, we were arguably the most popular club act in the city, and we could play anywhere we wanted. We were making top dollar, felt like little rock stars, invited to all the Vancouver dinners for top entertainers and whatnot, and walking down the street and having people recognize you. We were little rock stars. But it eventually comes to an end. You get older and people started getting married and having kids and it was like, “Do we wanna keep doing this?” I really reached the end. To be honest with you, I got really sick and tired of moving into my 30s, playing the young rock’n’roll role, coming off stage and all the hoopla and all the attraction… I just got tired.

David Read:
It’s quite a whirlwind.

Rob Lee:
There’s a probably — At that point in time, the top club in Vancouver was Richard’s on Richards, and I played with the lead singer for 12 years, consistently. And that same very night, I came off the stage, and I walked up to him, and I said, “Daryl, I think I’m done. This is it.”

David Read:
Then and there? That’s when you decided?

Rob Lee:
That’s when I decided. And he walked up to me, and he goes, “Rob, I was gonna tell you that tonight, that this was it for me.” And it was like, “Wow, you…?”

David Read:
For him too?

Rob Lee:
For him too. And we played, like I said, for 12 years together. By that time, I guess — I don’t even know the year. It was early 90s, though. And then… That’s the story of many musicians coming out of that… I had no resume. I [came] out of high school, all I could do was sing and play keyboards. So, it’s started — But I wanted to be — I was fighting… At that point in time, I was so sick and tired of being the center of attention. Everything handed to you on a silver platter. And the honest truth is, I just wanted to be a normal guy. So, I started trudging the difficult road to building a resume. I actually ended up — Here I was, a guy who would walk down the street… People, “Oh, you’re from that band la la la.” And here I was with a pair of boots over my shoulder standing on the street in Manpower, the labor Manpower in Vancouver, looking for day jobs. Just because I wanted to see what it was to work a hard day’s work. And I built my way up. Restaurant as a waiter for a while. I sold cowboy boots for a while. I was a master roaster of an Italian coffee roasting plant. And I ended up getting back into music playing a little bit, doing a duo with a friend.

David Read:
But not full time.

Rob Lee:
But then my son… This is the journey that got me in to acting… My first son was born. I’d met a woman in my music days, her name is Cynthia, and we fell in love, we got married. And here we are. She was a successful photographer. Model and photographer in Vancouver. Very successful fashion photographer. And then she’s pregnant. We’re gonna have our first son. And this is actually the summer of 1997. She sits me aside. I’m this guy who’s… I’m not making much money. But we didn’t need much money. It was just the two of us. And the story goes… She basically said, “You know you gotta… I’m not gonna be working throughout this pregnancy. You gotta start making some money.” And she actually sat me down in our kitchen…

David Read:
Powwow.

Rob Lee:
…And she said, “What do you think you can do very good? What are your skills?” And she knew… Well, I’m a piano player, keyboard player, but that was — And I just said, “Honestly…” I said to her, “I think I’m a pretty good actor.” Because I had done many… Many years prior to that, I’d done many acting classes and studied — The guy named Peter Breck was my first acting coach and he was Nick Barkley in the old TV series Big Valley. And he had come up from LA and planted himself in Vancouver, and me and a couple of people were his first students. He had no other students. So, we had one on ones with him for a long time. It was just more of a hobby. And because I had long hair back in the day, but not anymore…

David Read:
You let it down for the show. I appreciate it.

Rob Lee:
…I had gotten a few roles back then in 21 Jump Street.

David Read:
OK. DeLuise.

Rob Lee:
And there was other TV series. I forget what it was called but just playing rock’n’roll guys. Because they would phone up the rock’n’roll agencies, “Hey, you got any long-haired guys?” So, I got a couple of gigs and got a taste of the acting industry. And X-Files. I did a day on X-Files with some dialogue. But here I was, in 1997, and I needed an acting agent, but my wife was sort of in that business. She had been in the fashion industry. And to make, like I said, a very long story shorter, I was going into my music agent’s agency to pay some commissions for a gig that I’d done. And I was in there and my agent said, “Hey, Rob, you’re looking for an acting agent, aren’t you?” And I said, “Yeah.” And she goes, “Well, Nancy is here, and she’s got van Gogh Talent.” And she was one of the top acting talent agencies in Vancouver. And she said, “Nancy, Rob’s looking for an agent.” And she said, “You have a picture and a resume?” And I had because I was looking for an agent, and I pulled it out, she looked at it for a couple of minutes and she says, “Yeah, I’ll take you on.” And I was like, “OK. Great.” Because back then, as you see in Stargate, I had jet black hair and short hair, and I was thinner and taller.

David Read:
You were young.

Rob Lee:
And she says to me… This is August or September 1997… And she says, “I got a good feeling about you,” and she says, “I like to throw my people into the deep end.” So, she says, “Just get ready.” I didn’t know anything about the filming industry… Acting industry. She said, “Just get ready because this is a process. I’ll be sending you scripts and roles and you’ll be auditioning the very next day. I’ll give you the time and all this sort of thing, and the breakdown.” And she threw me in the deep end. 1997. And my goodness, overnight I was auditioning for supporting roles in films, regular parts [in] series. Just all over the place. And from September, October, November, December 1997, I landed my first big speaking role in the show Viper playing an Italian mafia guy.

David Read:
Sandy DeFalco.

Rob Lee:
Playing a mobster. And the funny thing is, the only reason why I got the job… I was so nervous. I’m telling you. You ever been so nervous you can’t even remember what you said? Your mouth is dry. You’re not listening to anything around you. When you’re in the audition room, you need to be really present and listening to who you’re auditioning with. The reader. Meanwhile, I was so nervous I wasn’t even listening. I was just blurting out my lines, “Yadda yadda, these guys. Come around, make sure you talk about it. What is…” I was just speaking over top of everything and not even remembering what happened. And I end up getting the role. And I was like, “What? How did I get that?” And I got on set and the guy, the director — See, this goes to show you. The audience has no idea what’s going on inside of your head. I learned a lot from this. Even the director said, “Oh, I love the choice that you made. You weren’t even listening to the — You were just such a confident, cocky guy. You were talking over top of everyone doing whatever you want.” He goes, “That’s exactly what we’re looking for.” And meanwhile… I got this role and then I got another role in a TV series called Sleepers that never ended up making it. And then I landed… This is before the end of the year… I landed a lead in a Canadian film called The Falling, and I was on set for a month. And here I am, think[ing], “Three or four months acting and my bank account is skyrocketing. I made it. This is great”

David Read:
And you have a baby on the way.

Rob Lee:
Got a baby on the way. Money in the bank. I’m going, “Man, this is great.” So, I’m on my way. And then 1998 comes very… New Year’s, the new year, and I didn’t land a role for about six months. And it was like…

David Read:
Feast or famine.

Rob Lee:
…”OK, this is the acting business.” But then I got my feet wet, and one role led into the next. I don’t know if you want me to talk about how Stargate came up.

David Read:
Rob, how did Stargate come in? That was my next question. Because we’re around that timeframe. So, Season Four is 2000.

Rob Lee:
Just to make ends meet here and there, I’d still would do the odd… A little bit of background work. So, I had been around the Stargate set doing some background work. I think that’ why they… When you look at imdb.com it says eight episodes whereas only six…

David Read:
I see. Yes. Scientists in Torment of Tantalus. Scientist in The Fifth Race. Then in Season Four you were Pierce. OK. I did not know that. OK.

Rob Lee:
I think I was probably whoever rounds up all this info. I was just doing some background work. But I was actually doing background work on the show when I’d got my — You’re always getting calls from your agent finding out if you got a role or not. And I remember being at Stargate, doing… And it was lunch break, and I got a phone call from my agent, and I landed my first guest starring role on a show. It was the show Dead Man’s Gun. And I was flabbergasted, “Oh my goodness. A guest starring role.” And it just gave me so much confidence, landing that role. It’s like, “I guess I’m doing something right.” And I just continued with my auditions, and I auditioned for a role, and it was the episode The First Ones.

David Read:
That’s right.

Rob Lee:
In 2000, I think it was. And I auditioned for a role — If you watch the episode, too, you can see when my character Pierce… When I come out of the woods at one point in time and I have a soldier with me, and I say, “Hey, this guy’s just wandering around the woods and he’s out of his mind. He doesn’t know…” I had an audition for that role…

David Read:
I see.

Rob Lee:
…Of that soldier.

David Read:
“Anyone with a snake in their head, raise your hand.” Wow.

Rob Lee:
I auditioned for that. That role, which was just a few lines in that one episode. And I remember getting the phone call from my agent the next day and she goes, “You didn’t get that role.” And, as usual, I’m disappointed. She goes, “But Peter DeLuise really liked you.”

David Read:
Peter DeLuise.

Rob Lee:
And I go, “Oh, great,” and [she says], “He’s written in a new character for you for that episode.”

David Read:
That’s right. It’s his show.

Rob Lee:
I go, “Wow.” And she goes… And the great thing is… You gotta think back in those days, too, you’re [a] starving actor… What you really looking for is the amount of day work. So, she says, “But this is great because you’re on every day.” And I go, “What?” She goes, “Yeah, seven days. You’re booked. And you’re playing this…” Actually, at that point in time, I think, it was just Corporal Pierce. And Peter wrote in this…

David Read:
Colonel.

Rob Lee:
…This role.

David Read:
Or Major. He’s a major. He was a Major at this point.

Rob Lee:
At that point? I don’t know. I remember on the script…

David Read:
It may have been, but you were… Your ranks are listed as formerly Major and then later Colonel. So, I suspect that it’s correct.

Rob Lee:
Yeah, that’s what’s on IMDB but I don’t know because I remember one episode being a Corporal, one being a Captain.

David Read:
Really? OK.

Rob Lee:
It’s kept sort of… And I wasn’t a full Colonel, I believe, when I did Endgame. I think I was left Lieutenant Colonel. But anyways… He had written in this role, and I was supposed to be Richard Dean Anderson’s right-hand man, “Hey, Pierce. Go do this. Go do that.” And it was great. There’s such a great crew there, I’m telling you. And the cast and crew… There’s so — I’ve done some acting and sometimes it can be kind of a harsh atmosphere because not everyone’s super friendly, and you just go in, do your job. But these guys were so inviting and encouraging, and it was just a great time. And I’ll tell you, there is a moment… And it’s funny. Any actor who says… Who doesn’t admit this to you is lying… That actors, they’re very sensitive.

David Read:
Of course.

Rob Lee:
They are always quest[ioning] — Some of the guys that I know that had their own TV series and whatnot, they can be very sensitive and very fragile. The ego, “Am I doing good? Is this OK? Is that…?” So, from anyone that we respect, any comments, any encouragement is taken very well. We need that build — someone to lift us up. So, I remember we were changing sets out in the woods in this first episode, The First Ones, and I was — We had a little bit of a break and I’m walking down this pathway, and I’ll never forget this. This was like a little video playing in my head I can remember from 25 years ago. And we’re walking down this pathway, and I hear these footsteps running up behind me. And it’s Richard Dean Anderson. And there’s no one else in the woods. Just me and him. And he goes, “Hey, Rob!” I go, “Yeah?” And he goes, “Hey, I just wanted to tell you I saw your audition tape and man, it was so great.” And I went, “Thanks,” and then he takes off. And little does he know that right away I’m floating off the ground, “Wow! You loved my tape.”

David Read:
MacGyver loved your tape.

Rob Lee:
MacGyver loved my tape. So, I don’t know if these guys know how much it means to some of these actors. Or maybe they do and they do that just to encourage you and make the job go smoother for you.

David Read:
Do you remember anything about Peter DeLuise’s directing?

Rob Lee:
Yeah, he was — I remember thinking, “This guy is brilliant.” Because I’d been on shows and there are a little bit mixed up… And guys aren’t 100 percent sure what they’re doing, or their direction isn’t as clear. But he was so clear. I remember on this one fight scene that was happening that really clinched it for me that, “Man, this guy knows what he’s doing.” And it was one of those scenes where there was multiple people and there was gonna be one of these invisible aliens…

David Read:
We’re talking Allegiance in Season Six. 2002.

Rob Lee:
…Coming through the crowd and killing various people. And I’m thinking, “How are they gonna film this? How’s it gonna work?” There’s all these extras and there’s a couple of main actors and this thing is supposed to be coming through killing people and I thought… And I even talked to a couple of stunt guys, “How’s it gonna work?” And they go, “I don’t know. We’ll see what he decides.” And he shows up on set, and he just walks up and he goes, “Hey,” to the stunt guys, “Have you guys decided who’s dying and who’s not?” They go, “Yeah, this guy, this guy…” And he walks up to them, and he puts them in various parts of the crowd. He goes, “OK. When I yell your name, you fall and die. When I yell your name, you fall… And when I yell your…” And he goes, “OK,” and he just had it laid out so clearly and he had these numbers when I go, “One, two, three. And I want you guys moving around. I don’t want…” And he had the guy in the green suit just run through and it happened so quick. They shot it and it was just like, “OK. Let’s run it through.” And it was like, “Here we go. Here he comes. One. Two. Three.” And all this action starts happening and if you watched the finished product, it’s wonderful, but he was so clear. Everyone knew exactly what he wanted to do. And as an actor, he would tell you exactly where he wanted [you] to walk, stand and say — That’s something that people that don’t act don’t realize. The big — One of the most difficult things is to be in this fake world with these marks that you have to land on for camera and lighting’s sake. You’re keeping all this in while spinning out your dialogue and being believable and looking at the environment. And sometimes you’re looking at the actor you’re speaking to but they’re actually way over here. So, you’re looking at an X mark over here or the side of a camera here. And unless you’re really relaxed, it can be pretty intense, and you start realizing why they pay some of the main actors that kind of money. Because it’s stressful.

David Read:
I would imagine you would really have to believe in the process, and when you have someone like DeLuise at the top, it’s like, “OK. I’ve got a net under me. He’s not gonna let me fall. I’m just gonna jump into this and trust that it’s there.”

Rob Lee:
Yeah. And that’s what’s so great. And he was so… What’s the word? He was so kind and not in a goofy way, too. Because they knew that I also had… My whole life I have had a physical problem with my left leg. So, I was a limper. I limped. And they were always very cautious with what they wanted me to do, and they worked around it. They said, “Don’t worry, we’ll work around it.” It was great.

David Read:
Because sometimes you have to be really physical. In that particular episode a lot of the guys are throwing themselves over because something invisible is hitting them and then you’ve got Rob Fournier on set, the armorer, who’s also just going through hundreds and hundreds of… Well, letting Rick go through hundreds and hundreds of bullets. That whole scene is one of the biggest from the show. That’s an extraordinary sequence.

Rob Lee:
And like I say, he executed that so perfectly. So quick.

David Read:
When you know what you want…

Rob Lee:
Yeah. Because he’s such a clear communicator. And he’s such a wonderful guy. Everyone loved him. It’s great if you love your director.

David Read:
Absolutely. Were you…When these episodes would come along, would you get a call or did you ever audition for a part and it’s like, “OK, Rob’s here. Let’s just go ahead and rename this Colonel Pierce,” or rename this or whoever it was or whatever rank it was Pierce? Or would you just continually find yourself coming back every year?

Rob Lee:
Yeah, it was that phone call. I’d get a phone call from my agent, “Hey, they’ve written you in.” And I didn’t… After the first time I didn’t know it was gonna happen again and again. So, it’s a great thing when you get, as an actor… When you don’t have to go in an audition. It’s like, “Hey, Pierce is in this next episode so be at the set at this point in time and get suited up, and –” So, it was a wonderful thing to have a recurring role like that. And as the role… As the episodes went along, they would give me more and more dialogue and trusted me more and more with actually standing your ground and being a character and speaking more and more dialogue. I remember… I don’t even know what episode it was. You probably know better than me but there was a scene… You probably know the episode… That I’m in — It seems like nothing to the audience but to an actor who’s working his way up — It’s on set and it’s on one of these planets and they have these tents set up and there’s a map on the table and they’re trying to work out where they’re going in the map. And just the fact that it was just me and Richard and these two other lead alien guys… The fact that they scripted me in there to go look at the map with them and to figure out where we’re going and I would tell them, “If we go on the east side here, it’s not gonna work out,” or whatever.

David Read:
It sounds like Prophecy.

Rob Lee:
Prophecy? For me it’s like, “Wow, they’re scripting me into actual parts of the storyline that move the storyline along.” And you start feeling more and more confident that they’re not just using you as a one-off guy to throw out lines.

David Read:
They are fleshing out the world. You have a limited number of people… Granted, certainly it’s a lot of people… But a limited number of people who are in on this secret and it takes a ton of money to train them. So, when you have an actor coming in who does a good job, you’re gonna keep them in the back of your mind moving forward. It’s like, “Well, if this is a real world, what are the chances that we would see this person again?” And the chances are pretty high. So, it only made sense to reinforce the realism of Stargate Command as a place, and as a family of teams, and you got to partake in that off and on year over year.

Rob Lee:
Yeah, it was great. I think the last episode there was when I was a Colonel Pierce. I think I was the leader of SG-15.

David Read:
You were commanding Alpha Site.

Rob Lee:
Yeah, the Alpha Site.

David Read:
“Promoted to Colonel [and] assigned as the commanding officer of Alpha Site on P4X-650”, just so you know. So, you really come up in the world. That was what Rick… That was what O’Neill wanted to do as early as Season Three. So, that’s really cool.

Rob Lee:
And I had some great instructions with Teal’c about their plan of attack and how well it was or wasn’t gonna work and there was some great dialogue. By that time, I was so comfortable that it was like you’re in your own living room with the dialogue and the whatnot.

David Read:
What kind of a process is it to get into… To recognize that you’re here as a cog in a larger system to facilitate the plot movement that’s really… In that kind of a particular scene or earlier in Prophecy with the maps… And making sure that you get it out exactly, right? It’s not exactly poetry but you’re moving the story along and playing your part. Do you have to get into kind of headspace for that or is it, “I’m gonna be here on this day. This is my job. I’m gonna look at the map and point at the map and tell them what they need to do, and you just do it?”

Rob Lee:
You do. As an actor, you need to understand and recognize the seriousness of the situation that you’re in, that you’re portraying and express it. Obviously, as soldiers, as army guys, we’re not gonna be crazy with our feelings flying all over the place but yeah, you wanna be serious about making your point, which I believe I do in that instructing… In Endgame… Instructing the caution of the battle. It’s like, you wanna understand what you’re saying. You don’t wanna just spit out the dialogue and you want that seriousness to be portrayed. But you wanna do it in a subtle enough way, too, where it’s believable. Because you can tell in one second when someone’s “acting” and it’s like this… When you watch these B-movies and the acting is brutal.

David Read:
They just got paid for it and moved on.

Rob Lee:
It is fun to be in the room. I took some acting lessons years prior to that with a guy named Mark Brandon High who… He’s been acting in Vancouver for years. And he was a great guy for me, teaching me that when you’re in the room, or when you’re acting on set or in an audition room… He goes, “Don’t waste your time thinking that you’re imagining this other world that you’re in and this other fake…” He goes, “No. You just be there. Just say to yourself, ‘I’m in an audition room,’ but be real. And be real, and with your intentions of what you wanna say with your dialogue, and just let them… They’ll… The producers and directors and the audience. They make up the scene. He’s on a snowy mountaintop or his wife just died and he’s — You don’t have to worry about that stuff. You just be present. I’m on set. I’m standing here. There’s lighting guys all over the place but be intentional about what you’re saying to who you’re reading with and let the magic of the TV series and the moviemaking do all the rest for you. You don’t wanna waste your time with all that thought.”

David Read:
It sounds like you can trust that good material will ultimately take care of itself but I’m curious, when you come across bad material and you need the paycheck, do you just squeeze your nose and dive in?

Rob Lee:
Do you mean bad-bad scripts?

David Read:
Yeah, like a project that’s, “This dialogue is — I’m not fully in love with this but someone’s gotta play this and I need the work and I’m gonna feed my family and we’re gonna just do this one.”

Rob Lee:
That’s a funny segue because that’s exactly what led me out of the film industry. Because at my point in my career I could — Because I worked my way up the ladder, your day rate and the money you’re making grows and grows but I still wasn’t at the point where… I couldn’t pick and choose my roles. If an audition was given to me, I had to go and I had to do it. And if I didn’t, I’m undermining my agent and it’s really bad, like the agent goes, “Hey, I’ve submitted you for this. And out of all these guys they picked you and him and him. And now you’re telling me you’re not going?”

David Read:
And your agent has their family to feed.

Rob Lee:
Yeah, and they have their reputation with the casting director. So, it’s a chain of reaction there and you have to listen. So, I couldn’t pick and choose but I began… I was growing as a person, too. Spiritually, too. And in my life, who I wanted to be as a man, and now as a father… I think that was probably a huge thing for me. A husband and a father. And some of the roles that started coming down my way, I was like, “Man, I don’t know. I don’t wanna audition for that. I don’t even wanna play around with that role or be that person.” And I actually was on the highway heading down to the audition for this one… I won’t mention the show or whatever but a good friend of mine had landed the show and he was the lead guy. And it was like, “Wow, I get to go and maybe work with him.” I’m auditioning for this role but…

David Read:
Hello, puppy.

Rob Lee:
Keep it down, buddy.

David Read:
It’s OK. When we do this live, this kind of thing happens all the time.

Rob Lee:
There’s someone at the door? But anyways, I pulled over the side of the road heading to this audition, and I phoned my agent and I just said, “Hey, you know what? I don’t think I can audition for this.” She goes, “What are you talking about?” And I sat there at the side of the highway, and I just gave her my story, and she really respected it and said, “You know Rob? I get it but from this point on I will run roles by you to see if you wanna audition before I submit you.”

David Read:
Can understand it.

Rob Lee:
But hey, just for — I’ll jump forward on that, but this stuck in my head a couple of minutes ago when you were asking about playing a role and being comfortable. It made me think of a wonderful thing about Richard Dean Anderson that I really respected, and how much of a master he was at just being his character, spitting out his dialogue and being present in the room. Talking about an actor who’s so comfortable, who doesn’t have to play these games like, “Oh, I’m now… I’m on the side of a mountain and I got these people chasing me. No, I just have to be honest with my dialogue.” We would be doing these scenes, and he would be like… Seconds before the director would say, “Roll sound. Action.” Seconds before, he’s chatting with the lighting guy and he’s going, “Yeah. Thursday? You think on Thursday? Yeah, sure. OK.” And then suddenly, this “Roll sound” is coming, “Yeah, that sounds good. Well, what are we gonna…” and he’s right in… Seconds later he’s right in the character and giving his lines. And meanwhile, the audience is… They might be doing his closeup and he’s got his whole gear, his soldier uniform on, but from the waist down he’s got a pair of shorts and some flip flops.

David Read:
If there’s not gonna be coverage of it, you don’t need it.

Rob Lee:
He was in his own living room, and he was so casual. He was just a master.

David Read:
I don’t know where Jack ends and Rick begins. I think it’s a moebius strip. But he was so comfortable with that character. He had completely made it his own just a few episodes into that series. And he was wonderful to watch for eight seasons. You never knew what you were gonna get. And I knew he liked to throw curveballs on set where something would just occur to him, and he would just say it. And a lot of the times it made it into the show. I imagine watching him work was quite spectacular.

Rob Lee:
It was great because as an actor, too, I’ve always said… Some of the more difficult roles, I think, are… The more emotional roles are easier to play but there’s only a few guys, I think… Guys like him and guys like Harrison Ford, and I always thought… What’s his name? He played in The Fifth Element.

David Read:
Oh, Bruce Willis.

Rob Lee:
Yeah.

David Read:
There’s a whimsy to them.

Rob Lee:
Guys who can be in the midst of chaos and gunfire and throw out these, like you said, whimsical lines like, “Well, gee, I never saw that coming.” And they make it look so easy, and you think, “Oh, that’s really easy to be that guy,” but you try to go and do that and make it come across believable. 99 percent of actors would look like total idiots, but they pull it off. They pull it off and we love it. We go, “This is great. The guy is moments from being killed. Gunfire, bullets flying everywhere and he’s saying these crazy things.” And Richard is like that.

David Read:
You’re just at peace with your environment and you have to be willing to explore. And you imagine they fall in their face a couple of times before they finally get it dialed in and figure it out. And you’re watching the culmination of that confidence and charisma all just coming out, and it’s like, “Man, can he deliver when he’s on camera.” What year was it when you decided to step away from it and start pursuing other things? And what really led you to that?

Rob Lee:
So, it must have been…

David Read:
It’s around ’07, right?

Rob Lee:
No, it must have been right in there around — I think the last show I ever worked on was 4400.

David Read:
Yes, 4400. This says ’05. Excuse me. I apologize. I was wrong.

Rob Lee:
So, I think right around there. That was when I decided that’s it. And like I say, it was just — I felt like it was starting to compromise who I was becoming. I really felt I was growing spiritually. I felt God calling me to another, like seriously another place in my life. And strangely enough, I went right from that into having my own little painting business. I had helped a friend of mine who was a career painter. He actually acts… Funny enough, he works on set decks. He works in the film industry. And I’d helped him out a little bit and learned a lot of the trade. So, for the next few years of my life I actually had a painting business. A little ma-and-pa, a little painting business in Langley that just skyrocketed immediately, and it was just this wonderful business that I had.

David Read:
What was it? Were you doing commissions or were you teaching others to paint?

Rob Lee:
No, I was painting.

David Read:
You were painting?

Rob Lee:
I was doing residential homes, just all around the neighborhood that I lived [in]. At that point in time, I was living in Langley.

David Read:
Oh, we’re not talking about easel painting.

Rob Lee:
No, we’re talking about house painting.

David Read:
You’re painting houses.

Rob Lee:
I’m painting houses. Within a day — Within a year or two I had a couple of employees working for me and this is all happening, and it was just wonderful. It was really great. I made great money. Everything was great. But then I tell you, what really happened is, over those years I kept growing and growing, I had started going to this church in Langley. This church — And I’d gone to different churches in my life, and I’d grown up in a church and wandered away from church and lived that rock’n’roll lifestyle from my younger days to 12 years earlier that I said. I had actually… To be honest with you, I had become a blackout drinker and a partyer [and] womanizer. Just lived the whole life. But here I was, me and my wife, and I started going back to church. And I’d gone to all different churches… We end up in this tiny, little church in Langley, and it was such a simple, little thing. All the guy did was open up the Bible, open up the Word of God, and teach it verse by verse every Sunday. It wasn’t like this bug hype sermon. It was just teaching… It might be just 12 verses. And then just hanging out together. And we loved it, “Man, this is so simple and so pure.” And we grew and grew and grew, changing as people, and we started going to these little… Just for two weeks at a time… These little mission trips down to Mexico to help out with the orphans and the poor in Mexico. We did that twice. And probably maybe 2008, 2010, 2009. And then last time we came home after that, I couldn’t get it out of my mind. I remember going across the border of Mexico back into San Diego and it felt like I was leaving home. To go home. And it was like, “What is going on here? Why do I feel such a draw…”

David Read:
You’re being pulled.

Rob Lee:
“…To this place.” I go back home and I… Usually with something like that in my life, I’d get excited about something, within a few days it drifts away… But I just couldn’t get it out of me. A couple of weeks go by, and I mentioned it to my wife. I said, “I can’t stop thinking about Mexico and wondering if we’re meant to be down there.” And to make a long story short… And this was after a process of finding out whether or not the people down there that were running the mission would even have us or if they though that we were supposed to be there with them… And so, to bypass that whole long story, we end up, me and my family with my two boys, in a van heading on the I5 south with a van full of staff. And we planned on going down for three months and we were down there for three years. And we lived alongside of this couple, and we served in all the orphanages and all the way down to Baja, from Cabo up to Tijuana, and El Vizcaíno, which is in the middle of the Baja. And spent three years just constantly using my music to play there and preaching the gospel to the people.

David Read:
So, you’re fluent in Spanish?

Rob Lee:
What’s that?

David Read:
You’re fluent in Spanish?

Rob Lee:
No, by the end of it we were pretty conversationally fluent. But I’ve lost a lot of it. My youngest son who left… When we arrived there, he was seven. So, he grabbed a whole lot of it. By the time we left, he was pretty fluent. That’s a big part of our journey, from my rock’n’roll days into my acting days, and somewhere in the middle — I never mentioned it, too, but just to make ends meet I was the piano lounge guy at the Pan Pacific Hotel and the Vancouver Hotel singing, “Fly me to the moon, and let me play among the stars.” All that kind of thing. And here I am, I ended up missionary in Mexico. I come back and I start serving at our church and to make a long story short, after quite a few years of taking over the men’s ministry there and teaching men Bible studies to the word, and this and that, the senior pastor comes into my office and he goes, “You know what? I don’t know why we haven’t done this till now but…” And he made an assistant pastor of the church. And that was… I’m so bad with timeframes… But that was 10 years ago now. And that’s what I do. I serve at the church there. I’m actually, right now, in my wife’s place of work. She works in a non-for-profit organization in Chilliwack. It’s called Pearl, and it’s a resource center for women coming out of…

David Read:
Bad relationships?

Rob Lee:
No. Coming out of… Whether it be drug addiction or prostitution. So, she’s right on the front lines, every day, pouring into people and clothing them and finding them housing, and feeding them, and cleaning them. And the list goes on.

David Read:
People underestimate a life of service. I think teachers understand it in some way if they’re good at what they’re doing. I think our society is so fast-paced and narcissistic and it’s so easy to overlook the people who need our help and support. And I don’t know how we slow that down. But it’s certainly sounds like you had a 90-degree turn there at some point where it was just like, “This is…” It sounds like when you found that particular church, it was like, “This is gonna be my thing.

Rob Lee:
Well, I’ll tell you…

David Read:
“This may be my next path.”

Rob Lee:
Earlier on in my life, it was all about me me me me me. I was just self-consumed with everything. That’s what addiction is. You can’t help it. But yeah, there’s something about coming to faith in God. And I’ll tell you, it is so sad because the Christian church, actually biblical Christian church, the true followers of Jesus Christ are so misunderstood in the world today. The world doesn’t understand what it really means to be a Bible-based follower of Jesus Christ. Because it’s had so much misinformation, so much craziness over the years. And when you finally delve into it and you actually — Most people say, “Well, I’ve read the Bible.” But no. If you actually read it, verse by verse, study it through, you realize, “My goodness, this is the real deal. This is like, “Why would anyone have a problem with God who’s basically saying this in his book?” Saying, “I love you so much. I’m gonna come down there. I’m gonna give my life for you so that you can have life. And I want you to be filled with joy. I want you to be fulfilled. I want you to have purpose. And I want you to be free from your past, free from all the wrongs you’ve done in your life. And I’m gonna pay the price for you. Because I love you.” It’s like, “Why would anyone argue against that?” And I guess the bottom line is, it’s a step of faith.

David Read:
People… There are so many people who put on clothing of believers and share their selfish nature with others and often force them to turn away, like, “Oh, you want me to be like… The picture in my mind is that person over there. You want me to be like them? I don’t wanna be like them.” But there is — Words fail me in this particular situation because we have a mixed audience here. You and I would have a very different conversation by ourselves. But I think that everyone needs to come them… Come to who is that’s — I’m stuck.

Rob Lee:
Let me… If I can just say this…

David Read:
Yes, please.

Rob Lee:
…Really quick. Just to pinpoint it for people that don’t understand, like I say, biblical Christianity, who Jesus is and what he actually did. God talks — Apostol Paul talks about it in the book First [Epistle to the] Corinthians, Chapter 15. Right at the beginning he lays out the gospel, which is the good news. Gospel just means good news. And he lays it out. And it’s basically whether or not people believe this or not. The fact that they hate the word sin, because they just hate it, but it’s really all the mistakes, all the problems, all the selfishness, all the crap the goes on in this world is what sin is. And Paul says in First Corinthians, Chapter 15… He basically says, “This is the good news.” And there’s three points to it. And he goes, “Jesus who is God came here to this Earth just like you and me and became a man and lived this life. And then he was killed on a cross to pay for your sins and then he rose again without your sins.” And he says, “You either believe that or not. You either want that gift or not. If you give him your sins, all your faults, he went to the cross to pay for that. But when he rose again, it’s without that. And you’re free. He’s paid for it.” People will argue, “Well, how can he do that? Who is he?” Well, he’s God. He can do whatever he wants. Really, that’s the bottom line. If he’s God, if he’s keeping the heart beating in your chest, and he’s forgiven you of everything just because of your faith in what Jesus did for you, then take the gift. Or not. It’s really that simple. It’s a little leap of faith and it’s to me… I tell people, “It’s almost like if you’ve seen the old Raiders of the Lost Ark movie, when Harrison Ford has to step across that chasm.”

David Read:
Oh, Last Crusade. Absolutely.

Rob Lee:
But the bridge doesn’t arrive until he takes that step.

David Read:
Leap from the lion’s head. Will he prove his worth?

Rob Lee:
It’s like that with faith in Jesus. You take that further…

David Read:
A lot of people… They have to see it to believe it. There’s a lot to unpack there, for sure, but I appreciate you sharing…

Rob Lee:
That’s a whole other episode.

David Read:
That’s the whole other thing. And the thing about science fiction that it does so well is, it expresses these themes in different ways. And I think that there’s so much about science fiction that gives us a door into different truths. And I think that Stargate did that very well in many respects. I have some fan questions for you before I let you go, if that’s OK?

Rob Lee:
Can I first of all just say, as far as characters on the show, and remember I told you how wonderful they all were, the one guy I didn’t get a chance to work very close with, was Michael Shanks. But you know, I ended up, years later, watching that whole series that he did. The hospital show.

David Read:
Saving Hope.

Rob Lee:
Saving Hope.

David Read:
I haven’t seen it.

Rob Lee:
I loved that.

David Read:
Oh, is it good?

Rob Lee:
I loved it. And he is so great. It’s a whole other aspect of his character as an actor. Because so many times I’ve been disappointed seeing actors, and they get this other role. But he is perfect for it. And it’s such a great show. I loved it. I thought he was great.

David Read:
I really need to sit down and watch it because we’re probably gonna have him back later this year, and I only talk to him about Daniel. But that was a whole other chunk of his career. So, if you say it’s good, I’ll have all the more reason to check it out.

Rob Lee:
Really, really interesting storylines in that.

David Read:
OK.

Rob Lee:
He was great. He was so perfect for the role.

David Read:
Absolutely. Marcia Middleton. She says, “I love that your first role listed on IMDB is for St. Elsewhere. Your role was ‘Man on airplane’ Is that correct? And did you meet Denzel Washington?”

Rob Lee:
You know what? See, there’s a couple of things that are wrong. I wasn’t in St. Elsewhere. Some of those other ones, too… There’s a couple of weird… Wax Encounter [sic!]. There’s a couple of strange things. I should get the hold of them and just say, “Hey, I wasn’t in those.”

David Read:
Were you ever a background performer on Stargate or was your first episode The First Ones?

Rob Lee:
No, like I said, I did a couple of episodes of background work. That’s why they took me back to 1997.

David Read:
OK. Got it. That makes sense. Jakub Olejarz and Raj Luthra, “Where do you think Colonel Pierce is now? What would have happened to him next?” I suspect he’s a general.

Rob Lee:
He’d be General. I think he probably would have taken over the whole deal and maybe some kind of a strange controversy would have happened, and Richard Dean would have been out.

David Read:
Did you ever follow the show yourself? Did you ever watch what happened later?

Rob Lee:
No. A little bit here and there but not very closely.

David Read:
Jack ultimately went to the Pentagon, and Beau Bridges came in and took over. The idea that these people are still going on missions to other planets, and we just don’t know anything about it, is just one of the great ideas of the show, that this could be going on right now. You could bump into these people at the cash register, and you don’t know that they’re completely responsible for holding back the tide of God knows what alien presence is gonna come and take us away.

Rob Lee:
Even when we get older, we’re just undercover on other planets, still keeping you guys safe.

David Read:
Exactly. Thank you. So, you’re gonna stay in the Ministry? Do you see yourself doing that for the next while?

Rob Lee:
Yeah. That’s it for me. For sure. It’s mainly men that I minister to. So, I’m just helping guys out [daily], whether it be through addiction or their marriage or whatever.

David Read:
Do you find that our technology is making things worse? OR is it just the same old problems that we’ve had every time we’ve gone around the sun? It’s just a different date.

Rob Lee:
I think everything has always been there. All the problems. But yeah, there’s no argument technology has definitely made some of the problems worse. Because technology can be either used for wonderful reasons or brutal reasons.

David Read:
It’s a tool.

Rob Lee:
It’s a choice. But without getting into details, I’ve got a couple of friends who, because of technology and the troubles that they got into, have lost friendships and marriages, and everything.

David Read:
Temptation…

Rob Lee:
Finances, too.

David Read:
…Is always present.

Rob Lee:
Yeah.

David Read:
Absolutely. I am really… Thank you so much for sharing your testimony, and your story, and your journey, and the different avenues that it’s led. I think you would qualify as one of the more diverse stories that I’ve heard on the show in terms of a journey of a person over the course of your life. To sit down and share that story with us is not small thing. And it means a lot to me that you came on and shared it.

Rob Lee:
Well, you know, I’m in the middle of writing a book. Biography. Because I haven’t even touched it upon you some of the other things that went on with it. I had a frontal lobe brain tumor. I had cancer in my left leg. And pelvis was amputated. The list goes on.

David Read:
And you are still here.

Rob Lee:
I’m still here and the journey is unbelievable. I’ve just had so many people say, “You gotta write a book.” And I’m in the middle of recording my first full album right now. My son is producing it. So, it’s a never-ending journey.

David Read:
Well, I will stay abreast with you about those things. Because when they become available, we’re gonna make the Stargate community aware of it. That’s very…

Rob Lee:
Especially when my album is finished and it ends up on Spotify and Apple music, it’d be great to let you know.

David Read:
Please do. Yes, you have my contact. So, once that becomes available, I will definitely help share the word.

Rob Lee:
Yeah, that’s great.

David Read:
Rob, it’s been great to have you on and thank you for sharing your story and your journey. Stargate has been touching so many people’s lives for so many years, and the fact that I get to receive little pieces of people’s stories across their journey and where Stargate has come in and out of it, is really special to me and to my audience. So, I appreciate you taking the time to sit down and share yours with us.

Rob Lee:
Hey, well, you’re welcome and thank you. I think it’s awesome what you’re doing. And you’re such a gracious guy. And I’ve enjoyed… I’ve listened to a couple year older episode, too, and I think it’s a great thing that you’re doing. And yeah, the bottom line, let’s face it, it was a great series.

David Read:
They had something working right to do 17 seasons of them. Take care of yourself out there. Be well and continue speak your truth.

Rob Lee:
Yeah, you too, brother. And like I said, I’ll be in touch with…

David Read:
Perfect.

David Read:
…Further info. I’m gonna go ahead and wrap up the show on this end, Rob. You take care of yourself.

Rob Lee:
Alright.

David Read:
Be well. Rob Lee. Colonel Pierce in Stargate SG-1. Thank you all for tuning in for my opening weekend. I’ve been really blessed to have so many wonderful people come on and share their stories. And Stargate is one period for a lot of their lives. Like Rob, he’s moved through all these different chapters. And we see where one ends and another begins, and Stargate’s critical for a lot of these folks. So, I’m glad we finally got him on. My tremendous thanks to my moderating team. Antony, Jeremy, Marsha, Sommer, Raj, Lockwatcher, Kevin. You guys make the show possible behind the scenes. If you enjoy what it is that we’ve been doing on Dial the Gate, if you want this show to continue, if you wanna see more content like this available on YouTube, please do click that Like button. It makes a difference with the show and will continue to help us grow our audience. And please consider sharing this video with a Stargate friend. And if you wanna get notified about future episodes, click Subscribe, and giving the bell icon a click will notify you the moment a new video drops, and you’ll get my notifications about any last-minute guest changes. And clips from this live stream will be released over the course of the next few weeks on both the Dial the Gate and GateWorld.net YouTube channels. Thanks to Linda GateGabber Furey, my producer, and Antony Rawling, my co-producer as well, with Yvie and Nicole. And Frederick Marcoux at ConceptsWeb. He’s our web developed over on Dial the Gate. We have another episode coming up in just five minutes. I’ve pushed it a little bit later. This is a pre-recorded show where we’re gonna unbox this little guy behind me here. A working Stargate. You get to see the look on my face when I first put it together. Oh man, that’s a good one to watch. Jaron did an amazing job putting it together. I appreciate you all tuning in. We’ll see you tomorrow for another live episode with Lane Gates. All the details are at dialthegate.com for complete schedule. My name is David Read for Dial the Gate. Now, see you on the other side. Bye-bye, everybody.